NEELA NATARAJ

After school, I never planned to pursue PhD In fact, it was not a common thing to choose to do Ph. three decades ago, more so given the family background that I come from. The thought of PhD dawned and the motivation to pursue the same happened at a summer school during my Masters. Well, I never planned anything when I started – my career path came as it came. All I was clear about right from my childhood was that I wanted to teach. Anything beyond that I considered a bonus.«

»At every stage in life, you face obstacles. It totally depends on you whether you choose to view them as challenges to  overcome or as difficulties that act as debilitating deterrents. It all depends on how you want to find ways to overcome them and bounce back. It depends on how passionate you are about the work and the mathematics you want to do.«

»My supervisor had this philosophy that the time you invest in something sincerely is not wasted time. Collecting different types of experiences, and facing different types of problems forges your personality, and improves your expertise and  logical capacity. You have to do it to experience it.